Globalisation, Power and Integration: The Political Economy of Regional and Bilateral Trade Agreements in the Americas

Abstract

This article explores the dynamics of regional economic integration in the Americas. Economic globalisation, or an increased volume of trade and investment and increased mobility of capital, presents developing countries with new opportunities and challenges. In particular, the emergence of south-east Asia as a major site for the production and export of manufactured goods has generated intense competition among developing countries for foreign investment and export-market shares. In this article, globalisation and ensuing competition is linked to the process of economic integration between the United States and countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Fundamental changes in global patterns of investment and trade, in combination with international and domestic power asymmetries, contribute to the spread and proliferation of regional and bilateral trade agreements (RBTAs) between the United States and its hemispheric neighbours.

Policy space and regional predilections: Partisanship and trade agreements in Latin America

“…The first, MARKET POWER, is measured as the ratio between the two countries' GDPs. A larger value for this variable is indicative of a market power asymmetry such that the larger country could exert pressure on the smaller country to sign a PTA and engage in economic reform (Hirshman, 1945;Shadlen, 2005Shadlen, , 2008Gallagher, 2008). The second dyadic variable, TRADE FLOWS, is the total value of annual trade between the two members of the dyad.…”

The Mexican Exception: Patents and Innovation Policy in a Non-conformist and Reluctant Middle Income Country

“…NAFTA itself is an inadequate explanatory variable, however, for the patent-strengthening initiatives that Mexico would introduce, a decade after NAFTA entered into force, were not required by the agreement. In fact, NAFTA ought to have insulated Mexico from bilateral pressures, as it converted Mexico's preferential market access from a unilaterally granted concession that could be withdrawn at the United States' discretion to a bound and non-removable obligation (Shadlen, 2008). Nor can the external relationship explain Mexico's tepid action in terms of STI policies, for this is an area where more action is encouraged.…”

International Inequality and World Poverty: A Quantitative Structural Analysis

“…The combination of an increasingly globalised economy and the type of manufacturing done in the developing world has, in many cases, been harmful due to downward pressure on the prices of these manufactured products and greater unemployment in poorer countries, as the GVC analyses have highlighted (Kaplinsky 2005;de Boer et al 2012). Furthermore, in cases where such inequalities are not enforced by international trade laws, developed countries have often turned to bilateral and regional trade agreements to ensure they are able to benefit from unequal trade relations (Shadlen 2005(Shadlen , 2008.…”